What to Know
In 2026, more than half of the United States still allows the death penalty as a sentence for those committing the most violent and heinous of crimes. The time an inmate lives on death row is dependent upon many factors, and some sit for decades before their execution.
While the perks of being sentenced to death are very few, many inmates have the chance to request a final meal before their death, and the prison grants that wish. Texas is not one of those states. So the infamous Taylor Parker will not get a final meal of her choosing before her death.
Parker is the youngest woman on death row in Texas.
The Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct takes an in-depth look at Parker’s life of crime. She told multiple lies, including telling her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, that she was pregnant. Those who knew Parker became suspicious as she’d had a hysterectomy after her first two children were born and was unable to conceive.
As she continued the ruse, Parker befriended a pregnant woman named Reagan Simmons-Hancock and ultimately brutally murdered her on October 9, 2020, by cutting her unborn baby from her womb. A court convicted Parker of capital murder in the deaths of Simmons-Hancock and her unborn baby. She currently is one of seven women on death row in Texas and the youngest at age 33.
Texas did offer a final meal until one inmate ruined it for everyone.
On September 21, 2011, the state of Texas put 44-year-old Lawrence Russell Brewer to death by lethal injection. A court sentenced him to death for his role in the racially motivated brutal killing of 49-year-old James Byrd Jr. in 1998, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Prior to his execution, prison officials took Brewer’s request for his final meal.
Per The Guardian, Russell asked for, and received, two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat-lover’s pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. As the costly spread sat in front of him, Russell made a bold choice. He didn’t take a single bite.
Russell’s obstinacy led to a major change.
Russell’s final act of defiance sparked a change across the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. From that day forward, the state no longer honored requests for a final meal. Some lawmakers didn’t think it was fair for murderers to get a final meal choice in the first place. They felt the killers received a privilege their victims never had before their deaths.
While the date of Parker’s execution remains unclear, one thing is certain: she will not choose her final meal. No one on death row in Texas has chosen a final meal in more than a decade, and they all have Russell to thank. His final moments determined how the state would handle executions from that day forward.
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